An online auction is on for lunch meeting with whistle-blower website Wikileaks' chief Julian

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Assange here next month and the bids have already reached 560 British Pounds (over Rs 40,000 a person).

The bidding is being conducted on internet auction website eBay for the three-hour lunch meeting to be held on July 2. A total of eight seats are on offer for sharing the lunch table with Assange.

The auction announcement on the eBay website said the renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek would also be present in the lunch meeting at The Troxy restaurant in East London.

The lunch would be followed by an event where Assange and Zizek would discuss "the impact of WikiLeaks on the world and what it means for the future".

WikiLeaks presents itself as a "not-for-profit media organisation" aimed at publishing "original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth".

The Wikileaks disclosures of secret cables sent to the US from the American embassies in different countries have created controversies across the world, including in India.

The eBay posting said that the entire proceeds from the auction would go to Wikileaks.

The 7-day bidding began on June 13 with a starting price of 350 British Pounds and the latest bid was recorded at 560 British Pounds. The bids can be placed till June 20 for the lunch scheduled for July 2.

There were a total 29 bids till the noon today.

The secret US cables published by Wikileaks have already created a controversy in India and Assange in his media interviews has said that the website was in possession of secret documents related to Swiss bank accounts, including those of many Indians.

Last week, an eBay auction for lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffett ended with a winning bid of $ 2.34 million.